r," 1746, this wraith of the
House of Stuart disappears--dying obscurely in Rome; and "Wha'll be
King but Charlie," and "Over the Water to Charlie," linger only as the
echo of a lost cause.

There was a time of despondency when England seemed to be annexed to
Hanover, following her fortunes, and sharing her misfortunes in the
"seven years' war" over the Austrian succession, as if the Great
Kingdom were a mere dependency to the little Electorate; and all to
please the stubborn King. Desiring peace above all things England was
no sooner freed from one entanglement, than she was plunged into
another.

{140}

In India, the English "Merchant Company," chartered by Elizabeth in
1600, had expanded to a power. One of the native Princes, jealous of
these foreign intruders in Bengal, and roused, it was said, by the
French to expel them, committed that deed at which the world has
shuddered ever since. One hundred and fifty settlers and traders, were
thrust into an air-tight dungeon--in an Indian midsummer. Maddened
with heat and with thirst, most of them died before morning, trampling
upon each other in frantic efforts to get air and water. This is the
story of the "Black Hole of Calcutta;" which led to the victories of
Clive, and the establishment of English Empire in India, 1767.

Two years later a quarrel over the boundaries of their American
Colonies brought the French and English into direct conflict. Gen.
Wolfe, the English Commander, was killed at the moment of victory in
scaling the walls of Quebec. Montcalm, the French commander, being
saved the humiliation of seeing the loss of Canada (1760), by sharing
the same fate.

{141}

The dream of French Empire in America was at an end; and with the
cession of Florida by Spain, England was mistress of the eastern half
of the Continent from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the
Atlantic to the Mississippi. So since the days of Elizabeth, and from
seed dropped by her hand, an Eastern and a Western Empire had been
added to that island Kingdom, whose highest dream had been to get back
some of her lost provinces in France. Instead of that it was to be her
destiny to girdle the Earth, so that the Sun in its entire course
should never cease to shine upon British Dominions.

Side by side with the aspiration which uplifts a nation, there is
always a tendency toward degradation, which can only be arrested by the
infusion of a higher spiritual life. Strong alco